Brand Identity Design & Development

An Adaptive Brand Evolution for Portent

After the rollout of the Portent Website Evolution, we all agreed: it warranted a brand refresh to go with it. Just like the site, it’s all about iteration — evolution, not revolution.

Revolution has its downsides. Evolving a 20-year old brand can sometimes be a better path.

Back when this project was still a secret, we gave it a code name, Project Comet Ensō, referencing two of its core, underlying concepts. Utilizing the comet and the ensō to conceptualize the brand, we designed a path of evolution forward that integrated the past, present, and future of Portent, rather than tossing 20 years of company history to the curb and just “rebranding” from scratch.

History should inform the present, and by making a point of considering where we’ve been, we are better equipped to create a future that is viable, productive, and responsible – to take an active role in melding what we will become.

Concept Image: Ensō

ensōnoun

1. In Zen Buddhism, an ensō “circle” is a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The ensō symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and mu (the void).

2. The ensō itself is a universal symbol of wholeness and completion, and the cyclical nature of existence, as well as a visual manifestation of the Heart Sutra, “Form is void and void is form.” One can see in these paintings of the ensō that form and void are also interdependent and, in fact, define each other.

Starting at One, Not Zero

Before the brand evolution, the Portent logo featured a capital “P” with a lowercase “i” in a circle.

Starting at one, not zero.

A company logo is a very particular thing. It needs to represent the brand, be legible at multiple scales, be flexible for varied contexts... We could go on. But besides all that, it simply needs to feel right. When you’re working with an existing company, they’ve been through it before – even though they want something new, the old logo felt right at one time, and it shouldn’t be disposed of without consideration.

Exploring the Elements

By separating the “Before” logo into its fundamental elements, we can explore the meaning of each independently.

Exploring the extracted elements.

The old logomark is composed of a circle; from there, we evolve to the ensō, a traditional symbol of wholeness and the cyclical nature of existence. The word portent, meanwhile, is defined as an imminent sign of something momentous, historically this was often a comet.

Evolution

The new logo reflects the old, a product fitting a 20-year-old company celebrating its legacy.

Evolution.

Rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, the new logo retains the feel of the old. There is continuity and familiarity in the evolution: longtime clients see that Portent remains current, yet also, still is the company they’ve relied on for decades.

Perhaps a Little Animation?

Should Portent want to play with a little animation in the future, imagine the inspirational comet traveling into view, then spiraling to the form of the logomark.

Transformation and animation as iteration.

Consider exploring an existing logo through its components. If the lockup is the statement to resolve, first factor the equation, leaving the “P” in the circle, the “i” isolated, and the wordmark.

Divide by “i” to remove the vestigial component from the mix. Invert the “P” in the circle, and you begin to see that negative space can still read as the letter itself. Integrate the logo and wordmark back into the new lockup, and voila!

Looking back to the concept of the comet, we also imagine a way to animate the logo into being: traversing the sky (or page, or screen, as it may be), then spinning inwards to form the logo.

Logo & Basic Brand Palette

Before this brand update, Portent’s main blue was bright and vibrant. Unfortunately, the blue logomark with the “Pi” in it looked very similar to signs for parking lots around town. But, the new palette doesn’t throw it out. The bright blue remains as part of the basic palette. For most cases, the new logo is shown either in white, or in Portent’s new main color: a rich, midnight blue.

New Logo, Meet New Site

Before the new logo rolled out, Portent’s website evolution was already live. (Check it out in the portfolio!) We swapped out the new brand graphics, and, BOOM: awesome new set up that still feels like Portent.

Let’s make It real.

And that’s that! Portent’s updated logo is live and out and about. Paired with a basic palette of colors (along with a series of tints and shades of the main brand blue), designing and developing for digital and print media is a breeze. From business cards and letterhead, to the pages of portent.com, the new branding keeps this decades-old company fresh, yet still familiar.

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